Some marketers hold the misconception that Direct Mail is outdated or dead which couldn’t be further from the truth. Direct Mail is more effective than ever and it’s now more important to include as part of your overall strategy than ever before. If you are not using a form of Direct Mail in your campaigns, then you are missing out on thousands of £’s of potential revenue and customers. In this blog post, we are going to explain why you should definitely be including Direct Mail Marketing.
Conversion rates
We are coming out the corner swinging with our first point. The biggest draw of Direct Mail is its conversion rates. Direct Mail Marketing experiences some of the highest conversion rates across any marketing channel.
- An Email has a conversion rate of 0.6%
- Paid search is 0.5%
- Display ads have a conversion rate of 0.9%
- Direct Mail surpasses all of these with an average conversion rate of 6%! (Source JICMAIL all addressed mail sample size 3973)
It may be shocking, but the data doesn’t lie! Many marketers may be shocked, but the DMA and JICMail both agree that Direct Mail conversion rates far surpass those of any other marketing channel.
High ROI
As marketers, we’re always looking for the best possible ROI. How much bang for my buck will I get?
- Direct Mail has the third biggest median ROI of the 5 top channels.
- There’s no beating emails at 124% due to the low initial upfront costs.
- Coming in a respectable second are social media adverts with 30%, and in a close third place is our old friend Direct Mail.
- The average Direct Mail campaign will generate a return on your investment by 29%
You may be thinking that this number is not very impressive, but when you compare this to 23% paid search and 16% for online display, The Direct Mail option becomes the much better option. Anecdoattaly, we have found that customers who have been captured by Direct Mail stay customers for longer and spend more, thus increasing the ROI in the future.
Cutting through the noise
Royal Mail reported thatfrom 30 March to 28 June 2020 volume fell by 33% (788 million fewer letters). This may seem troubling at first, but from a marketing standpoint, it provides an excellent opportunity!
Less volume means your Direct Mail is gaining more attention and in an online world where attention is measured in seconds, having more attention on something that stays in the house for days will lead to a higher conversion rate. Direct Mail captures attention like no other marketing tool.
SEGWAY to our next point!
The Science
A recent 2019 study by USPS and Temple University analysed Direct Mail’s effectiveness and influence on consumers. Researchers used neuromarketing techniques to gain insights on visual attention, emotional engagement, and brain activity to understand a person’s conscious and subconscious response to both print and digital advertisements.
Print marketing such as Direct Mail showed a clear stronger emotional response, was more comprehensible, memorable and made the products or services feel more desirable and valuable to the recipient than digital advertising.
Hit them in the feels
Direct Mail is not just a treat for the eyes like it’s digital counterparts. Direct Mail can engage all five main senses. Scented inks can trigger smell, mail can also play music, it’s a physical item so that covers the touch sense, you can send chocolate or even have the message in chocolate to cover the taste sense, See below (Royal Mail) and of course you can see it.
Tangible items will always be better than digital. Having physical items feels like more care and attention has gone into it. Our Director Rob always says “Imagine when you turned 100, the Queen sent you a Happy Birthday Email.” It’s true, an email is not personal, that’s why Birthday & Christmas cards are still as popular as they are.
It’s for this reason, those conversion rates are so high. It also has the added benefit of improving brand awareness. Second segway!
LifeSpan
Do you know what the average lifespan of an Email or Social media ad is? The average marketing Email lifespan is around 2 seconds, and the social media advert can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. However, the amount of time someone looks at the advert while scrolling through their news feed is minimal. The average piece of Direct Mail has a lifespan of…… 7.8 days!
Imagine trying to sell someone your brand in 2 seconds, virtually impossible. Now imagine you have over a week to sell someone your brand! We believe even the worst salesperson in the world would be able to make some headway in a week.
Direct Mail is saved for later, stored, put on fridges, discussed with other people within the household. All these factors increase the lifespan and the time you have to convert a customer.
When was the last time you spoke to someone in your house about a marketing email?
Cross-Generational
Some marketers still think that only older generations will respond to Direct Mail, and younger generations prefer digital marketing. However, this is not true!
17 to 24-year-olds actually keep mail in the house for longer than any other age bracket. This might be in part due to the fact they receive a lot less mail than any other age bracket, by a considerable amount too!
According to Forbes, Direct Mail may feel more personalised to younger generations than digital, as it shows the company sent something directly to them versus a mass marketing approach.
Conclusion
There you have our top reasons why Direct Mail should be part of your omnichannel strategy. We had to stop there otherwise we could go on and on and on….. To find out more reasons or to see how PSE can help with your next Direct Mail campaign call 0207 022 9825 and speak to one of our dedicated team members.
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